DHAKA, Bangladesh (AP) – Shafiqul Islam was studying business at Dhaka College in 1971 when a bloody and brutal war for independence ravaged Bangladesh. After being trained by the guerrillas in India, he returned to fight Pakistani soldiers.
“It was a time of total destruction,” he said. “Our bridges and roads were destroyed, our women were raped, the cities were besieged. Thousands of houses and shops were set on fire.
Nine months after it began, the war culminated in the country’s independence.
Fifty years later, Islam, 67, presides over Arrival Fashion Ltd., a next-generation clothing factory spread over 2.5 acres and surrounded by lush rice fields on the outskirts of the capital, Dhaka. The factory employs about 3,000 workers who manufacture jeans for export to Europe and North America.
The history of Islam reflects in many ways the rise of Bangladesh, where 160 million people live.
On the eve of half a century of independence this week, Bangladesh has been hailed as a success story for a young nation born of conflict and turmoil. While it has fought hunger, poverty, military coups and political violence, it has also been celebrated for what experts say is remarkable progress in raising the lives of its young population.
Millions of people have emerged from poverty as the country has unexpectedly become one of the fastest growing economies in Asia thanks to sectors such as the garment industry, which dresses millions of people around the world.
But some fear his success hides a darker turn, including concerns about his last election in 2018, when Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina won a fourth term after winning 266 of 300 seats in Parliament. It was a polluted election, as rights groups condemned the violence against opponents who alleged that they manipulated and chose the vote.
“The most troubling thing in Bangladesh is the decimation of the electoral system,” said Ali Riaz, a South Asian expert who teaches political science at Illinois State University.
But it was another fateful election, led by Hasina’s father, that pushed for the independence of Bangladesh, the origins of which extend to 1947, when the Indian subcontinent gained independence from British colonial rule. The land was sculpted into separate states, with the Muslim-majority regions converted to eastern Pakistan, now Bangladesh, and western Pakistan, now simply Pakistan. But from the beginning, a strong nationalist movement emerged as the language became a point of tension; Bengali was widely spoken in the east, while the Western Urdu-speaking elite rose to power.
In 1970 there was a turning point amid strikes and rising hostilities, when the Awami League of East Pakistan, led by Bengali politician Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, swept the ballot box in a national election. The government rejected the results, generating a movement of civil disobedience. On March 26, 1971, Bangladesh declared independence, provoking a nine-month war.
Pakistan launched a military operation to halt the transition to independence, while India joined the side of what is now Bangladesh. Pakistani forces surrendered on December 16, 1971.
Bangladesh says 3 million Bengalis died. Millions of people also fled to India and historians have said that hundreds of thousands of Bengali women were raped.
Another victim of the war was the economy: GDP was only $ 2.2 billion in 1972. That figure has catapulted since then, reaching $ 305 billion in 2019. Some forecasts expect that double in size in 2030.
The garment industry, the largest in the world after China, is central to some of the country’s achievements, accumulating more than $ 35 billion a year for exports. It employs four million people and the triumph has been felt more by women, who make up the majority of factory workers. A job at the Islam factory helps Nasima Akhter and her two brothers earn about $ 411 a month, which keeps her and her family afloat.
As a teenager, his parents struggled to provide him with three meals a day. Now 28, Akhter works eight hours a day, sewing hundreds of jeans. “We’re doing well now,” he said.
Per capita income has almost tripled with Hasina, who first came to power in 1996 and then was re-elected in 2008. Experts say the country has invested heavily over the years in the lives of women and girls. Currently, 98% of boys have finished primary school, with more girls in secondary than boys. Life expectancy in Bangladesh is 72 years compared to Pakistan’s 67 years, and it has also surpassed India’s richest in combating child malnutrition and reproductive health, according to World Bank data.
“It has been a fascinating journey,” said prominent economist Qazi Kholiquzzaman Ahmad. “It’s a development model for the rest of the region.”
But Bangladesh is also very vulnerable to the growing effects of climate change, with a third of its population at risk of displacement due to rising sea levels. Experts have long warned that a densely populated delta country like Bangladesh, struggling with severe and frequent flooding, will be one of the hardest hit by climate change. Surprisingly, Bangladesh accounts for only 0.35% of global greenhouse gas emissions, according to the IMF.
More immediately, the coronavirus pandemic poses challenges in Bangladesh. The COVID-19 cases caused a nationwide shutdown, and major industries and small businesses stopped. The country has reported more than 560,000 confirmed cases and some 8,600 deaths so far. Although experts say the total toll may be unfulfilled, Bangladesh is still less affected than many other countries.
However, the clothing sector has shown signs of recovery and other economic engines (remittances, agriculture and the services sector) are also doing well, said Ahmad, the economist.
But not everyone is part of the country’s roaring growth, added Riaz, the professor, citing data that employment growth remains low despite high GDP figures.
“The share of poverty in wealth, its income and opportunities are declining. The country cannot create more jobs for young people, ”said Riaz.
Most troubling is that observers say the government’s focus on development may be staggering its democratic beginnings. Advocacy groups and non-profit organizations have raised an alarm about the ruling Awami League. Freedom House, based in the United States, said the party had “consolidated political power through sustained harassment of the opposition and those perceived to be allies,” in its 2020 annual report on democracy..
Experts also highlight a controversial digital security law, which they say can be misused to silence freedom of expression. In February, protesters made an intersection in Dhaka for the death in prison of a commentator who was charged in accordance with the law with critical statements about the government’s management of the pandemic.
Bangladesh is witnessing a democratic setback over its electoral system, attempts to stifle political opposition and threats to freedom of expression, Riaz said.
“It was founded with the promise of an inclusive system, but it may be moving away from those fundamental promises,” he added.
Meanwhile, Hasina has set ambitious goals, such as raising Bangladesh to a higher-middle-income country in 2031 and another developed one in 2041. In February, the United Nations Development Policy Committee recommended that Bangladesh be promoted to a developing country, since -developed.
Islam, the director of the garment factory that fought in the war, said he did his part, but the country has much more to achieve.
“In 1971 we jumped and never looked back because we knew that independence had to come. Otherwise, this nation will not survive, “he said.” But that was not the end. We still have a long way to go, but our heart is always with the homeland. “
___
Pathi reported from New Delhi.